Purpose
by Spacebarspacebar
Summary: A school shooting at CalSci leads to Charlie finding out something he’d rather not know. —Numb3rs AU
1. Chapter1

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own the Numb3rs characters, of course. This is an AU some things in this fanfic do NOT fit in with the Numb3rs universe.**

**A/N: Hello! I'm new to the fanfiction world, I've decided after reading a bunch I should make one! So, yeah, this is my first fanfic, unless you count some cringy oc-insterts I wrote back in sixth grade and never finished hahaha. I hope you like this! PLEASE REVIEW!! As a kinda first time writer I would LOVE criticism to make my writing better! Thank you! **

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"So, what do you say? Shall we go out tonight?" Charlie's voice cracked as he try to be seductive, causing Amita to chuckle a bit, "We shall." She answered smiling. They continued their stroll through the CalSi courtyard, talking about where they might go for the evening, how their classes went, and well numbers. Why not save their talk for dinner? Well, when your in love, you never run out of things to talk about.

The day was beautiful, the sky was clear and the sun was shining but it wasn't too hot. It was the perfect fall day. The courtyard was clear, other than the few students speedily walking to their next class before the bell rang. And the few birds chirping their ways into migration. It was Charlie and Amita's free period, and once the bell finally rang, they were all alone walking along the sidewalk.

It was calm and quiet, it was a day like any other day. Suddenly, a loud 'bang!' noise was heard from one of the upper floors in the building, a few loud screams could be heard too. This made both Charlie and Amita jump in fear. Gunshot Charlie thought immediately, pulling out his phone to call Don.

"Hey Charlie we should get out of here!-" Amita's panic was cut off by at least three more gunshots, these ones being closer than before. "There's more than one! They're spread out across the building!" Charlie said frantically dialing Don's number while grabbing on to Amita's hand. People started to run out of the building, screaming and searching for safety. As they speedily walked toward the parking lot, someone picked up the phone.

Don was at the office sitting at his desk filling out paperwork when he got the call. Looking at the number, he realized It was Charlie's. Without hesitation, Don answered, "Hey Charlie what's up-"

"Don! There are multiple shooters in the building! Me and Amita are outside and Larry is sick a-nd-" Charlie rushed out his words like a waterfall in a frightened tone. Hearing his made Don stand up abruptly and start gathering his team. He heard screams of people at the other end of the line. He spoke as calm as he could being that his brother was in potential danger, "Alright Charlie, where are you?"

"CalSci-" He was cut off by even more shots, these ones being even closer than before... almost as if the shooter was outside now too. This time Don heard the shots, his pace quickened as concern grew. "Charlie! I want you to get out of there ok! We're on our way!" Don said demandingly.

"O-ok..." Charlie huffed out, him and Amita were running now, still holding onto each other. They, along with many other people ran to the parking lot, LAPD cars could be heard in the distance, and so could shots and screams. They would be safe soon. Charlie and Amita ran up to Charlie's car, as Charlie frantically tried to unlock the door, a student came running up to him.

He had a thick brown jacket on with the hood up, covering his eyes. The man caught his breath and said, "I know what you are Eppes..."

Charlie gave a confused look at the man and at Amita, who's expression matched Charlie's. "W-wha-" just then the student pulled a hand pistol out of a large pocket in his jacket. He held it up to Charlie's right eye and didn't hesitate to shoot. Charlie's curls bounced as the shot rang out "Charlie!" Amita shouted as tears swelled in her eyes. She watched as Charlie fell to the grown, blood pouring out of his eye and back of head. What could she do now? She couldn't believe what she saw, she always imagined Charlie and her growing old together, but now in that sudden moment it felt like everything paused. "No!" She cried out, to no avail, he did wake up, he didn't move.

The man then turned the gun to his own head, "And I'll make sure everyone knows too." He pulled the trigger.


	2. Chapter2

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own the Numb3rs characters, of course. This is an AU some things in this fanfic do NOT fit in with the Numb3rs universe.**

**A/N: Two uploads in a day! I had chapter 2 finished already so, why not! PLEASE REVIEW! As a first time writer, criticism is appreciated! Thank you!**

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Amita stood there in shock. "No..." she repeated in a quivering quiet tone. The car was blocking the two bodies from sight, but Amita was still able to see Charlie's lifeless hand. She dragged herself to the other side of the car, leaning one hand on it as she walked. People were running and screaming in panic all around her, but all she heard was her own heartbeat, getting faster as she walked, and her breathing, slow and heavy.

Amit got to the other side and hesitantly looked down. The tears poured from her eyes as she fell to her knees. Charlie lay lifeless on the pavement, his head in a pool of blood. His once bouncy brown curls where wet with red. Amita sobbed, she inched her way to the body, to hopefully touch his face one last time. She put her hand on his cheek and looked at the man's eye, horrifying she thought but never let go of the cheek. She place her other hand in the had of Charlie's and couldn't help but pull it close to her heart. Soon both of her hands where holding Charlie's, embracing it on her chest. She closed her eyes and sobbed.

All of a sudden, in this pool of screams, tears, and blood, Amita felt a weak squeeze in her hands. She opened her eyes stunned, her vision was blurry because of the wet tears. "Charlie?" She said quietly, another weak squeeze. "Charlie!" She yelled, her voice was raspy due to the sobbing. Amit took a hand off of Charlie hand and pressed two fingers against his neck. A pulse it was faint, but it was still there. "Charlie!!" She screamed again.

How? How? He should be dead, the bullet went straight through she saw it come out! He shouldn't be alive! Is what she should have thought, but instead she was thinking, he's alive! Oh thank god! He's alive! Amit was now crying tears of joy as she placed her head on his chest. The subtle raising and falling of his chest made her sob harder. "You're alive...you're alive!" She repeated over and over. The sirens could be heard getting closer and closer, "You're going to be alright Charlie..." Amita sobbed out "You're alive."


	3. Chapter3

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own the Numb3rs characters, of course. This is an AU some things in this fanfic do NOT fit in with the Numb3rs universe.**

**A/N: I am so sorry for the long wait! I wanted to wait for some reviews before I posted chapter three, but then I got those and still didn't post, I'm deeply sorry! Also, holy moly you all are great!! Thank you so much for the reviews and critiques!! I took notes and I hope to use them to make my writing better!**

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Don didn't remember much of the ride to CalSci. All he remembered was shoving his phone in his pocket, yelling at his team, and Megan saying, "No way in hell are you going to get there without getting arrested first. I'll drive." Then bam, they were there. Maybe he was to consumed in anger and worry to notice the passing of trees and houses in the car. He had to find his brother, had make sure he was safe.

Don jumped out of the car, and made his way an LAPD officer. The officer was giving orders to other officers, he looked to be the one in charge. Megan, David and Colby began talking to officers, paramedics, and students, trying to find out what exactly happened.

Don spoke, "Are you the man in charge?"

"Yeah, what's it to you?" The man replied. Don took this moment to pull out his FBI badge and flash it at the officer. "Don Eppes, FBI, mind telling me what happened here?" He couldn't help but look around. Students being evacuated, officers entering the building, and paramedics tending to the injured. But no Charlie. _Maybe he had gotten out? Gone to a safer place? I'll call soon. _Don thought.

The head officer filled him in, there was a shooting, _duh_, there was four gunmen. Three of the four were in some uniform, black shirts, pants and masks. One of them was arrested, the other two got away. The one other one was just wearing casual attire, he had been identified as Julius Day, he had shot himself after shooting a professor.

"One of the students said one of the gunmen was a woman. We're trying to find out where they might have fled off too. It has to be somewhere close, because the security tapes revealed they did not have a vehicle-" The man was cut off by Don's demanding words.

"Did you say one of them shot a professor?"

"Uh yeah, the paramedics left with him a little moment ago, looks like he was shot straight through the eye. There was a woman with him, all she kept saying was 'he's alive' when we tried asking questions. She went with him in the ambulance."

_Straight through the eye. There was a woman with him. He's alive. Charlie?_ Don began to panic on the inside, but managed to keep his cool on the outside. _Could it have been Charlie?_ He hoped not.

Don cleared his throat, "Have we identified this man?"

"Yes..." the officer looked through his notes, "Professor Charles Eppes. Wait...you're related to him?"

Don paused. It had been Charlie. Charlie had been shot. _I should have been here faster to prevent this... No I came as fast as I could, this isn't my fault. Was it? _


	4. Chapter4

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own the Numb3rs characters, of course. This is an AU some things in this fanfic do NOT fit in with the Numb3rs universe.**

**A/N: Woohoo new chapter!! This ones longer than the others, hope you like it! **

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"They took him to Horizons Medical Hospital." The officer said, as if reading Don's mind. Don's face was flushed, scared and filled with fear. His efforts to keep cool was showing signs of giving way.

"You better go." He said briefly.

"Yeah...uh...thanks-" Don didn't care to finish his sentence before jogging off. Megan, he thought Megan will have to take me. He wanted to drive so, so badly, but he didn't trust himself during this dire time.

"Megan!" Don shouted when Megan came into his view. Megan was attending some frightened students, questioning them, comforting them. She turned when she heard Don's loud voice, "What is it Don? What did you find out? Are Charlie and Amita ok?"

"Megan, I need you to drive me to Horizons Medical Hospital. Now." He demanded, ignoring Megan's questions.

Megan was confused, she said, "What- why? Is Charlie ok-" She got cut off.

"Charlie's been shot." Don huffed out, looking at Megan with a distressed look on his face. For a moment Megan paused and stood in shock, eyes wide, mouth open.

The shock didn't last long, and soon after that was said, Megan started for the parked black SUV. "Ok, let's go." She said seriously.

Don followed after her, the car seemed so far away. He was worried beyond worried, but one phrase rung in his ears, '_...__she kept saying 'he's alive'...' He's alive. _

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They drove and drove, it felt like an eternity to Don. "Can you drive any faster?" He complains.

"Don, listen, I know you're worried, but I'm driving the fastest I can." Megan said sympathetically.

"Turn the lights and sirens on! Please, Megan." The last part came out in a whisper. Megan's heart ached, she never saw this side of her boss before. The usual stern, strong, and serious Don, was now a lump of worry and fear.

"Don, you know I can't do that. Not for this. He's gonna be alright, Don, Charlie is strong. You need to be strong too, ok?"

Silence.

And there they rode, every minute felt like an eternity. _'He's alive'_ Repeated In Don's head the whole way.

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They finally arrived, the hospital was big and clean. As soon as Megan parked the car Don bolted out the door, towards the entrance. The long car ride was agonizing for Don. Some of the panic left him when Megan shifted the car into park, but it quickly came back as Don thought about his brother. He broke into a light jog trying to get to the entrance as fast as possible. Megan followed shortly after.

The interior was mostly white with light color tile floors, very bright and eye-straining. The hospital wasn't very crowded, so it was way easier to get to the front desk. Don got to the desk and asked the nurse, "I'm looking for Charles Eppes, I'm his brother Don." He stated, trying to sound like he meant business, but his voice quivered half-way through the line.

The nurse typed on her computer in front of her, and scanned the screen. "Charles Eppes...room 203, on the second floor."

Without hesitation, Don started toward the elevator. He was surprised that they let him in so easily, _Charlie was shot, shouldn't they have done surgery or something? Surgery isn't that fast... _Despite his wonders and questions, he was glad he got to see his brother. _Now is better than later_, he thought. He and Megan rode the elevator to the second floor.

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Charlie's room was dimly lit, it had pale blue walls and glazed wood floors. Don expected it to be as bright and as white as the rest of the hospital, this was a nice change of pace. It had a bathroom to the right of the entrance door and had a couch on the back wall. The bed was in the middle. Charlie lay on that bed.

Don ran up to Charlie, his heart ached to see his baby brother like this, unconscious on a hospital bed. Thick bandages covered the upper right part of Charlie's face, covering his eye. "He's lucky..." The voice startled Don, he looked up to see Amita. The little eye makeup she had on trailed down her face. "They said the bullet must have just grazed him...but..." Her voice pitched up a little.

_Grazed? But...what happened to 'shot straight through'?_ Don thought, he had so much questions to ask but he settled on, "When will he wake up?"

Amita looked up at Don, "The doctors say he could wake up any moment, and that we shouldn't try to wake him, he needs to wake up on his own."

Silence.

"Ok," Megan finally spoke breaking the silence. It startled Don, who forgot she entered with him. "I'm going to call David and Colby, tell them what's up. I'll be right back. Tell me if anything...happens." Megan left the room.

"Don, sit down." Amita said softly, "I have to tell you something. There's a chair behind you."

Don pulled up the chair, keeping his eyes on his brother. "Amita, the officer told me it looked like it 'shot straight through the eye' was that true? If it was why'd the doctors say it was a graze?" Don questioned, louder than usual, but that could have been because the room was so quiet and any noise sounded loud. Especially the noise of the anxiety inducing beeps of the heart monitor.

"I was just about to tell you about that. Yes, he was shot straight through the eye, I saw it. There's no way it was a graze. But when we got to the hospital, it looked like just that, a graze. I have no idea what's going on..." Amita started to tear up, "...but I'm happy he's alive."

Don put his hand up to his mouth, and rested his arm on his knee. He looked and Charlie, confused but happy. "Me too." He said sincerely, it almost came out in a whisper.

They sat not talking for what seemed like a decade. Suddenly, the beeps on the monitor became more frequent, not too alarmingly, just enough for Amita and Don to notice. Amita looked up wide-eye, a relieved smile on her face. "I think he's waking up!" Her and Don stood up, they both got closer to the bed. Charlie began to stir a little. Don felt the tears welling up in his eyes.

"Hey, hey buddy, it's me, Don!" His voice quivered. "Just, come on wake up now! Everything's gonna be alright..." Maybe that last part was more for himself than Charlie.

Charlie opened his one eye that was not bandaged, and looked around. He looked confused. "Hey Charlie, you're at a hospital." Amita said to him reassuringly. He still looked confused.

"Glad to have you back bud." Don said smiling. Charlie looked at him and then looked straight ahead. He lifted his right arm up to his bandaged eye. "Charlie you were shot- hey wait don't do that!" Amita's smile faded and her expression changed to concern. Don looked at her confused and then at Charlie, who was picking at the bandages, trying to pull them off.

"Charlie I don't think you're supposed to do that. Should we call a nurse? Buddy stop-" Don stopped in his words. He was shocked at what he saw in front of him. Charlie had successfully pulled the bandages off, and...his eye, and everything around it...was perfectly fine.


	5. Chapter5

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own the Numb3rs characters, of course. This is an AU some things in this fanfic do NOT fit in with the Numb3rs universe.**

**A/N: Yay! New chapter!! **

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"Well, looks like you're all good!" The doctor said happily after shining a tiny flashlight in Charlie's eyes, finishing the check up. Don and Amita had called her in shortly after Charlie pulled off his bandages. Once she arrived, Amita went ahead to the bathroom to clean herself up a bit, and Megan came back into the room. She and the doctor were startled at first, when they saw Charlie's healed eye, but Megan thought to save the questions for later as the doctor proceeded to preform a normal checkup. It was clear that the doctor was confused by the rapid-healing eye, for she subconsciously looked at it multiple times during the checkup. "I...have no idea how your eye healed so fast but, everything seems to be working! You're talking fine, you can preform basic actions, no brain damage, everything on the outside is well, I can discharge you tonight if you're feeling up to it."

"Yeah. Tonight is good." Charlie was still distraught about his eye, not that he wasn't happy to be alive but it just wasn't normal. Don spoke, "Are you sure buddy? I'm no expert but-um-"

He was cut off by Charlie, "Yes, I'm sure. The faster I'm out of here the less worried everyone will be. Especially dad, if I don't come home tonight you can count on mine and your's phones being bombarded with calls." Charlie looked down and gave a little grin._Oh dad_, Charlie thought.

"Well, you can't help a father's worry." Megan said.

Don sighed and gave the same small grin, "Yeah, well we have to tell him sometime, this is pretty serious..."

"Oh please Don," Charlie turned to Don, the grin off his face. "You get hurt all the time and beg me not to tell dad! I'm perfectly fine right? It's like nothing even happened...we don't have to tell him. And besides..." Charlie gazed away, "...I bet he wouldn't believe us anyway."

Don looked away for a moment then turned back to Charlie. "I guess you're right...ok, we won't tell him. Megan can you keep a secret?"

"Sure, Don. But if anything else serious happens, and Charlie ends up-um...coming back to life...if you haven't told him yet, I will. I mean, guys what if he knows something about this-"

"Let's just stop talking about this." Charlie's tone was demanding, but distraught. "Ok?"

Megan gave a small sigh, "Ok." She agreed. Don simply nodded.

"I'm going to go get the discharge papers, be right back. Alert the nurse if anything happens!"

"Thanks, Dr. Kyoto." Charlie said, waving off the doctor.

Suddenly, Amita came into the room, the makeup that ran around her face was gone and her whole appearance was more tidy. She smiled when she saw Charlie, "Hey Charlie, so what did they say?" She walked over to the chair beside Charlie, where she had sat in before, and held his hand.

Charlie smiled and turned to Amita, "She said I was fine, I'm going to be discharged tonight, she's out getting the paperwork right now."

"T-that's great! I'm so happy you're ok!" Amita said gleefully.

"Yeah..." Charlie looked in front of him, starring at nothing. The smile was still there, but it looked empty so did his eyes. "Yeah yeah..." he almost whispered. His right hand made it to his right eye, checking if it was still there...he snapped out of his little trance and looked back at Amita, "Me too."


	6. Chapter6

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own the Numb3rs characters, of course. This is an AU some things in this fanfic do NOT fit in with the Numb3rs universe.**

**A/N: Short chapter this week! I have a wedding to attend to, making food/decorations for it has been a real time consumer! Anyway, enjoy! **

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"Hey, do you know anything about 'patients that got a serious injury recovering within one to two hours? Like, this person got shot, and now he's perfectly fine?" Dr. Kyoto asked one of her colleagues.

"What? No.-What?" The other nurse said, confusingly turning back to look at Dr. Kyoto. "Do you have a patient like that?"

"Yes, and I know it's strange to me too, I've never had a patient that did this...before? And it looks like you haven't either."

"Nope. Never. I can talk to administration for you, if you want."

"Thanks, but I might as well speak with them myself." She finished saying as she pulled papers out of a filing cabinet.

"You're going to discharge the patient? Shouldn't we wait for you to talk with administration? See what they say?" The nurse questioned.

"The patient's completely fine, no reason to keep him here when there are other, very sick, patients that we need the room for. If we need him for anything, we can just call or come to his house. We have his records, relax, Jerry." Kyoto said reassuringly.

"Ok." Jerry said, "You're right, Jane. See you later." He said back. Jane walked off, back to Charlie's room.


End file.
